Zoom shares jump 80.5% above IPO price, open at $65.00 each

Zoom’s (
ZM
) stock began trading 80.5% above its initial public offering pricing in its public market debut, as investors snapped up shares of the video-conference software company.

Shares opened for trading on the Nasdaq at $65.00 each on Thursday under the ticker “ZM.”

The San Jose, California-based company priced its initial public offering Wednesday evening at $36 per share. Zoom said in a
statement
Wednesday it was offering about 20.8 million Class A shares to the public.

Zoom, which provides remote video conferencing services via the cloud, had a valuation north of $9 billion after its IPO Wednesday, excluding shares held by employees and some others. This was about 9 times its last private valuation from January 2017, and 28 times the company’s annual sales for the year ending January 2019.

Zoom is going head-to-head with another Silicon Valley tech darling, Pinterest. The online scrapbooking company also debuted Thursday, listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “
PINS
.” Pinterest shares opened at $23.75, or 25% above their IPO pricing of $19.00.

Zoom hits the public markets amid an influx of IPOs for highly valued consumer-facing tech companies. Companies part of this year’s IPO rush have been received with some trepidation from investors on Wall Street and Main Street.

A strong U.S. equity market and relatively low volatility in the first quarter have provided a solid backdrop for new companies to hit the public markets. However, the tempestuous results of Lyft’s IPO late last month have led to some concern over the sustainable interest in some of this year’s most highly anticipated public offerings. Lyft’s stock is now trading about 17% below its IPO price.

While Zoom enjoys relatively less name recognition than other tech unicorns – or companies privately valued at more than $1 billion – such as Pinterest and Lyft, it has distinguished itself by being one of the few tech companies in this year’s IPO rush to post a profit.

Zoom reported a profit of $7.6 million for the most recent fiscal year ending January 31, and revenue more than doubled over the year prior to $330.5 million.